System requirements for synthetic monitoring

This topic lists hardware and software requirements for virtual machine-based components and for other components that must be met before installing and using BMC Synthetic End User Experience Monitoring components. The following topics are presented:

BMC Real End User Experience Monitoring environment

To run synthetic monitoring, you must have a functioning real monitoring environment. Specifically, synthetic monitoring requires the following components from the BMC Real End User Experience Monitoring environment:

  • Real User Analyzer analyzes and aggregates the synthetic data received from a Real User Collector.
  • Real User Collector receives the synthetic results from the BMC Synthetic Transaction Execution Adapter (TEA) Agent and makes the results available to a Real User Analyzer.
  • BMC Application Performance Management Console hosts the BMC Synthetic End User Experience Monitoring Plug-in and provides the interface for Business Service and Execution Plan configuration. From the Console, you can also add scripts and view the status of agents and view Agent Group information.

Scripting requirements

BMC Synthetic End User Experience Monitoring uses prerecorded .ltz scripts to simulate end-user transactions, and BMC provides some basic scripts. You can create realistic and customizable scripts through an external scripting tool, such as Silk Performer, and then upload the scripts to the BMC Application Performance Management Console. The scripts require a compatible runtime environment.

Synthetic monitoring supports script protocols created with Silk Performer, such as HTTP, SAP, and Citrix.

System requirements for the TEA Agent

Before installing a BMC Synthetic Transaction Execution Adapter (TEA) Agent to monitor synthetic transactions, ensure that the host computer complies with the requirements described in the following sections.

Software requirements

Before installing the TEA Agent, verify that your system meets the following software requirements:

  • One of the following Microsoft Windows operating system is running on the host computer:
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 64-bit
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
    • Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit
  • Micro Focus Silk Performer 9.5, or later, is installed as the execution module to run the scripts.
  • 7-Zip 9.20 file archiver utility is installed.

Note

Ensure that the installation directory for the runtime environment and the archiver utility are included in your system’s PATH environment variable. Refer to your operating system's documentation to find how to add tool locations to the PATH environment variable.

  • To ensure proper aggregation of synthetic transaction data, the BMC Real End User Experience Monitoring Analyzer and Collector and all TEA Agents must be synchronized with the same Network Time Protocol (NTP) server.

Preparing installer requirements

On a Windows host computer for the TEA Agent, perform the following procedures to ensure that installer prerequisites are met:

  • If you want to run the installation wizard through a Terminal Services connector or remote desktop session, configure the Terminal Server options.
  • Configure the setup executable file to run in unrestricted mode, unblocked by the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature.

To configure the required Terminal Server options

To enable running the installation wizard through a Terminal Services connection or a remote desktop session, certain Terminal Server configuration options that pertain to temporary folders must be configured.

  1. On the TEA Agent host computer, open the Local Group Policy Editor by selecting Start > Run and typing gpedit.msc.
  2. Expand the following folder: Comptuter Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Temporary folders.
  3. Double-click the following options to set each to Enabled:
    • Do not delete temp folder upon exit
    • Do not use temporary folders per session
  4. Restart the computer.

If you try to run the installation utility and again see the notification about Terminal Server configuration, backup the registry and then adjust the following key:

  1. On the TEA Agent host computer, open the Registry Editor by selecting Start > Run and typing regedit.
  2. Expand the following folder: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server.
  3. Set the value for PerSessionTempDir and DeleteTempDirsOnExit to 0.
  4. Restart the computer.

To allow the installation utility to run unrestricted

  1. Select Control Panel > System.
  2. In the System Properties dialog box, select the Advanced tab, and then click the Settings button under Performance.
  3. On the Data Execution Prevention tab, select Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select.
  4. Click Add and select the setup.exe file that you downloaded or obtained from BMC Support.
  5. Click OK in all dialog boxes.
  6. Restart the computer.

Where to go from here

Installing the TEA Agent for synthetic monitoring

Related topics

Installing BMC Real End User Experience Monitoring

 

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